In Oregon, when I trade my games in, I'm required to certify there is no lien against them, like the IRS wants my copy of NCAA Football 11. It's one of the many fun-filled ways in which local ordinances regulate the sale of used games. Madison, Wisc., is scheming up another.

A proposed ordinance would have retailers collect personal information from those who sell used items—games, among them. Doesn't sound intrusive? Well, a goddamn photo of you will be taken. And entered into a police database. This is where all of you who bitch about the ACLU suddenly find it to be your best friend, because they are hot on the case.

Like many such ordinances, this one is aimed at actual miscreants—thieves, burglars, drug addicts, etc.—who don't give a crap about the civil liberties it violates and will probably connive a way around it anyway.

Civil liberties advocates note that the law doesn't prohibit local police from building a suspect profile out of information from its used games/movies database. Further, nothing prohibits the cops from sharing it with federal or state law enforcement.

The proposal passed a city council committee on Wednesday. It has yet to go to a vote of the full board.